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Cowslips Warren posted:True. Sorry, spoken in frustration. MANY people I knew on mfk were all about "gently caress DA police" about illegal stock.  
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Jan 17, 2015 21:22
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Cowslips Warren posted:I loving wish FB had the same rules as the SA forums. I'd pay the $10 not to deal with: Unfortunately stupidity holds strong on FB like YT comments. I love the complete topic shift to try and make you wrong. That's a retard desperately begging for a visit from the cops just to stand in front of a judge and tell him he knows the law better
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Jan 17, 2015 23:25
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demonR6 posted:It's coming along well. Has the shrimp population increased? Yeah, I started with just five shrimp since I didn't know how many I'd end up with and then quickly lost count, haha. The two biggest ones in there are the only ones I recognize, and they're part of the group I originally bought. Seems like they've stopped breeding as quickly, though it also got unexpectedly cold in my apartment this past month so I assume those things are related. They're doing ok otherwise! Also, random question, but has anyone successfully dealt with rhizome rot on their anubias plants? I only just found out that was a thing after I noticed the ones in my 36 gallon losing leaves due to parts of the rhizome turning brown and mushy (none of them are buried). At this point I'm assuming I'm going to lose them all since it sounds like there isn't really anything that can be done to save them, but maybe someone in this thread knows something Google doesn't.
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Jan 18, 2015 05:37
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We've got an Asian Carp problem in parts of Wisconsin....as most people are experiencing. Wish we had an Asian Goldfish problem. Cause still karp but way cooler. Someone needs to pop the Koi Bubble. Also I think people would be more inclined to not keeping goldfish in bowls if they went out fishing and caught a 50 pounder.
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Jan 18, 2015 06:59
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My sister picked up some "free tetras" today from someone who was breaking down their tank and felt bad about flushing living fish. She was hoping for some neons but came home with three guppies, a red eye and a hockey stick. The red eye seemed okay but the hockey stick posted himself behind her power head and wouldn't come out, he seemed absolutely terrified. The guppies colored up fine and started hanging around with her white cloud minnows but with five extra fish her tank was way too crowded so of course I've ended up with two more rescue fish (both of the tetras). I could fit more of the same of each in my tank to let them school but for now it will be wait and see; they'll probably catch whatever my sick fish has and die but at least they have more of a chance than if they'd gotten flushed out left in my sister's super crowded tank. I didn't bother quarantining them since my main tank is already a bit diseased but apparently they were surviving in one inch of cloudy turtle poop water so I'm hoping they have strong immune systems.
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Jan 18, 2015 10:39
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The new additions seem surprisingly happy despite being two singletons of schooling species; I would say they have the top level of the tank to themselves and the barbs don't seem that interested in them. They've tried tasting all the plants, seemed confused by frozen food but were happy enough to munch some flakes. Sadly I may have doomed them as I am 90% sure now that the barb with the wound on his back has a columnaris skin infection, supposedly it's horribly contagious... but also apparently the bacteria is ubiquitous so maybe they will be fine? The baths I've given the affected fish so far don't seem to be helping at all and I've read peroxide can help as a treatment. I've seen instructions for peroxide baths and peroxide swabbing, and also some reports that metronidazole can help so I might try cleaning the wound with peroxide then swabbing with some dissolved metronidazole. He's still active and eating but the wound is still spreading and has begun showing red around the edges. I'm not ready to give up on him yet. I also saw even more rosy barb fry in the main tank tonight and the single female is less plump than she was, sadly the one fry that I netted out didn't seem to survive the experience. He might have just been stunned, not sure, but I haven't seen him since I transferred him to the small fry tank. I'm going to leave the rest up to the mercy of their parents. The tank does have a very thickly mossed zone now which I had thought would be a safe haven for them but the adults seem to head over there for snacks quite regularly. Any stragglers would have no chance at all I think so I will let natural selection do its job.
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Jan 18, 2015 17:12
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If he's worth it to you, quarantine him and pound him with tetracycline. It kills gram negative bacteria like Flexibacter columnaris /and/ your beneficial nitrifying bacteria, hence my suggestion to isolate. :P While it is true that columnaris is ubiquitous, we should not ignore the role of increased pathogen dose and the degree of exposure for your other tank residents.
Fusillade fucked around with this message at 01:17 on Jan 19, 2015 |
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Jan 19, 2015 00:57
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Is anyone here a pleco expert or at least into or know a lot about plecos? I'm going to be adding more driftwood to my 75 and want to add a smaller single pleco to it. I really can't stand the look of bristlenose though.
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Jan 19, 2015 04:10
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Whale Cancer posted:Is anyone here a pleco expert or at least into or know a lot about plecos? I hardly saw my bristlenose the whole time I had it because as soon as the lights turned on in the room or the tank he'd haul rear end to his hiding place.
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Jan 19, 2015 05:02
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Whale Cancer posted:Is anyone here a pleco expert or at least into or know a lot about plecos? This is what I would suggest Orange Seams are the shizz. Phantoms are pretty cool too.
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Jan 19, 2015 06:20
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I'm thinking maybe a gold nugget or a tiger. Something that doesn't get bigger than 6". Wow green phantoms are really cool. wetspot has them for sale too.
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Jan 19, 2015 06:52
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Whale Cancer posted:I'm thinking maybe a gold nugget or a tiger. Something that doesn't get bigger than 6". My LFS used to get a bunch of really cool plecos in all the time. If I ever get the 200+ I deserve I'm want a royal.
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Jan 19, 2015 08:52
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Depends on what function your pleco needs to fill. Algae eater? BN is your best bet. There are some very nice color variations out there too. Scavenger/standard display? L200 would be great. I would be leery of anything marked 'gold nugget.' There are several species with that name, and all but one (L14) lose the gold as they age, and all of them get about a thick foot long and can be aggressive. What about farlowella (several species, aka twig cats) or otos? Hit up PlanetCatfish's Cat E Log and check under L numbers. Be aware that many species are not easy to find.
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Jan 19, 2015 11:32
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Fusillade posted:If he's worth it to you, quarantine him and pound him with tetracycline. It kills gram negative bacteria like Flexibacter columnaris /and/ your beneficial nitrifying bacteria, hence my suggestion to isolate. :P While it is true that columnaris is ubiquitous, we should not ignore the role of increased pathogen dose and the degree of exposure for your other tank residents. Pinky is not a valuable fish by any means but I see it as a good opportunity to gain experience in caring for fish as I am very new to the hobby. Although, he is the only surviving fish I have that I actually paid money for even if it was only a couple of bucks, and aside from that I'd rather see him get well than die. I'm in Australia so I don't think it will be easy to get tetracycline; I had to order my metronidazole from Thailand and I'm not 100% convinced that what I got is actually metro. But the vets should be back from holidays this week so I might be able to get a prescription. I didn't end up bothering with metronidazole as I'd planned, as it works on anaerobic bacteria while columnaris is aerobic. Pinky was too feisty to attempt to swab his wound, maybe it would be easier on a bigger fish but he's only 4 or 5 cm and I didn't want to burn his gills with straight peroxide. I found some information on calculating the required concentration and used this to set up a bath; I was expecting a much worse reaction but he took the peroxide bath a lot better than the protozin bath that I have previously tried. Didn't really see any sign of stress or discomfort apart from trying to net him in and out. I also gave him a salt bath this evening as I've read columnaris can't survive salinity > 1%, he didn't seem to like this bath as much as the peroxide bath even though I increased the salinity fairly slowly to allow him to adjust. He spent the duration of the bath pacing around the tank perimeter but did not seem panicked as he was in the first protozin baths. Possibly he is getting used to the attention or the treatment may not be as harsh. The very first time I treated him, the sore did reduce in size and my belief now is that I should have pressed the attack rather than leaving him alone and hoping he would heal by himself. He really didn't seem well after being exposed to iodine so if I can get similar healing results from peroxide and salt I will continue with those. After the iodine swabbing, he had a couple of days where he would seize up and tremble with his fins/tail; it didn't quite look like shimmying and he would snap out of it after a few seconds. I thought it could have been from having him out of the water for too long but whatever it was, it wasn't permanent. I wouldn't mind trying something like Hikari Biobandage on his open wound to help keep it clean in between baths; yet another product that I am not sure is available here. I forgot that I'd disconnected my UV lamp last time I medicated the tank and hadn't turned it back on again so the UV sterilizer is back in action too.
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Jan 19, 2015 12:21
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Hope he gets better.
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Jan 19, 2015 17:07
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Cowslips Warren posted:Depends on what function your pleco needs to fill. I've got a 75 gallon tank with a bunch of driftwood that needs munched on. Right now I like golden nugget and the rio negro's L135 look cool but I dunno. I can get real gold nuggets from a reputable source, jeff rapps.
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Jan 19, 2015 20:29
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Which l number do you mean? 18, 81, etc?
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Jan 20, 2015 02:04
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Cowslips Warren posted:Which l number do you mean? 18, 81, etc? I'm not even 100% sure how to tell the difference between an L18 and L81. From what I've read it has something to do with spots but they are both pretty much the same size anyway.
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Jan 20, 2015 03:49
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I take back what I said about my shrimp tank heater running too hot - the water in my shrimp tank is sitting at 28-29C with no heater turned on, with the lamp swapped for LED lights, the lid ajar and the AC on, a couple of hours later it still hasn't cooled down. Maybe the pump runs hot? I've turned the bubbler up on the sponge filter trying to make sure they stay oxygenated but I don't really know what else I can do to safely cool them down. Turning off the pump is the only thing left that I can think of. The talk of going open-top for tanks in cat inhabited homes earlier in the thread reminded me of a story I read on wet web media - its not just the fur you have to worry about : quote:Two weeks ago I noticed that the angels were very ill, almost overnight they were covered in white slime and their fins were rotting. I checked the parameters of the tank, and was surprised that the ammonia and nitrite and nitrate were literally off the chart. I found this to be very odd, as I do 50 percent weekly changes in the tank and usually the tank reads 0 for ammonia/nitrate and under 20 ppm nitrates. anyway, I did nearly a complete change and treated the fish with Maracyn and Maracyn 2. After five days the fish were still very ill, so I checked the water again...OFF THE CHARTS AGAIN! Needless to say I was confused. Later while I was quietly reading in the room with this tank, I noticed a faint sound of water running, looked up, and to my horror, my cat was urinating in the hood, and the urine was dripping into the tank! Needless to say, I tore down the tank and set it back up, and the cat no longer is permitted in that room! I can picture my own cat spitefully pissing in my tank, as it is he gets on the lid and glares at me with his ears back because he knows he's not allowed up there. Every time I try to spend some time watching the shrimp he starts climbing up my legs and carrying on.
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Jan 20, 2015 11:18
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Had to stop for some fish food today and decided to snap a few pics at the LFS Excuse the lovely quality. Cool Pleco  Man I really want some discus  Seriously They are So Cool  They have some seriously cool stuff - I'm glad they found a home for the alligator gar they had in their indoor pond though.  Bastard Hi-Fins  While this is a freshwater thread I found it funny that they're shaming their fish in store.  Pseudochromis is Mean Creepy Saltwater Clam  Edit: thumbnailing because those pics were huge. SkaAndScreenplays fucked around with this message at 11:35 on Jan 20, 2015 |
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Jan 20, 2015 11:33
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Did a lot of fish maintenance stuff over the weekend (mostly on the saltwater side), and got one of my 40g breeder tanks set up for a group of 12 demasoni I have coming in later this week. The fish in there now are yellow lab/red zebra mutts, a bushynose pleco and a gold nugget pleco. Not sure if the lab mutts will stay in with the demasoni or not, they may end up in the 90g cichlid tank upstairs. I used the same substrate as my 40g reef tank that is sitting next to it on a huge stand I built. They look pretty cool next to each other.  DSC_0005.jpg by meramsey, on Flickr  DSC_8908.jpg by meramsey, on Flickr
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Jan 20, 2015 18:49
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Whale Cancer posted:I've got a 75 gallon tank with a bunch of driftwood that needs munched on. You should try asking Jeff to help you decide / determine the best fit. I've asked him quite a few questions in the past and he always responded and was very helpful.
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Jan 22, 2015 00:23
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Anticipating my oscar will be dead by tomorrow night  The Rid Ich did nothing other than make the Severum stop eating. He tries to eat Tetra Cichlid sticks, but just spits them out. The oscar hasn't eaten in 5 days at least. He's starting to look like he's covered in a white cloudy film. Fungal maybe? I'll try to upload a picture.   The water has been cloudy since I added to Rid Ich Plus Bulky Bartokomous fucked around with this message at 02:59 on Jan 22, 2015 |
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Jan 22, 2015 02:16
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Large fish can take a gruesomely long time to die. :< Hope to see pics soon enough to diagnose. Doesn't sound like fungus to me. something's going on with his slime coat -- oscars will do that when they are ill. Entire sheets of it will slough off and be replaced once the fish is feeling better. I'd advocate for a water change and a dose with salt at a rate of 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons as a tonic. Did you do the pH check?
Fusillade fucked around with this message at 02:57 on Jan 22, 2015 |
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Jan 22, 2015 02:53
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Added pics. I only have a high range pH test, so i can only say with any certainty that it's 7.4 or lower. Will the salt from my marine tank work okay?
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Jan 22, 2015 03:03
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I see the pics now -- he doesn't have ich, he doesn't have hole in head either. The white sheet looks like an opportunistic colonization by bacteria scavenging his slime coat. I really don't think it is the primary cause of his illness. Yes, marine salt is fine to use. I would really suggest getting a standard pH test ki, you really need to be able to see the lower pH ranges because freshwater does not have the same buffering capacity as salt water, any little bit of imbalance can cause it to dip down really low. We're trying to get this guy's home to somewhere between 6.5 and 7.2, and we have no way to tell if he's swimming in water of a pH of 4 or 7. The good news is that he doesn't look peaked along his nuchal area,which means his muscles haven't started wasting from starvation. You still have time. Fusillade fucked around with this message at 03:37 on Jan 22, 2015 |
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Jan 22, 2015 03:17
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Fusillade posted:I see the pics now -- he doesn't have ich, he doesn't have hole in head either. The white sheet looks like an opportunistic colonization by bacteria scavenging his slime coat. I really don't think it is the primary cause of his illness. Yes, marine salt is fine to use. I would really suggest getting a standard pH test ki, you really need to be able to see the lower pH ranges because freshwater does not have the same buffering capacity as salt water, any little bit of imbalance can cause it to dip down really low. We're trying to get this guy's home to somewhere between 6.5 and 7.2, and we have no way to tell if he's swimming in water of a pH of 4 or 7. I really appreciate the input and advice, thanks. I just finished a 40% water change, but left about 2 inches short on the refill to get more aeration from the filter. I am increasing temp to 80, added salt at your dosage and realized i had some Melafix. Figured it can't hurt. He's actually swimming around the tank again, and did a few big chomps. He's vibrating the top of his tail at the severum too. This is the perkiest he's looked in a while. I will pickup a full range pH kit tomorrow. Think I should try some kind of antibiotic or maybe see if the salt/melafix combo improves things for few days?  E: now that he's up and moving again he's gone back to flashing. Keeps rubbing his gill/chin area on the flower pots. Not continuously, he's done it twice in the last 15 minutes or so. Bulky Bartokomous fucked around with this message at 03:57 on Jan 22, 2015 |
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Jan 22, 2015 03:49
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Aww, yay :3 I am glad you had the marine salt, it has some minerals in it (mostly calcium) that may have helped bump up the pH (if it was an issue. He's looking a lot better, the flashing is probably from skin irritation from the broken slime coat. I would not mess aound with antibiotics at this point, because they will wreck your biological filtration. Give him a few days first to heal up, the salt encourages slime coat recovery. Antibiotics may not be necessary.
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Jan 22, 2015 04:21
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Glad to hear your Oscar's showing some positive life. I've an old friend that had one and he was absolutely devastated when it died, it'd been with him so long. Used to complain a lot because the Oscar would eat half a fish and spit the head out and he'd have to clean up.
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Jan 22, 2015 10:22
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Speaking of half a fish, RIP Biggie Smalls, the largest of my rosy barb fry. He was easily 2cm long and yet somehow fit through the filter strainer and got his head ground off in the impellor, leaving only his tail-half. I think he probably tried to chase a piece of food up there. I've never trusted those strainers! I'll never de-sponge a strainer again! That's what I get for being lazy and hoping to avoid some vacuuming by letting the filter suck up more of the snail poop.
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Jan 22, 2015 11:28
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[Edit: IGNOOOORE MEEE!]
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Jan 22, 2015 16:56
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Whale Cancer posted:A lot of people get a film at the surface. You can either provide more agitation or float a paper towel and get rid of it real quick. Just wanted to thank you for posting this - I bought that Eheim 350 skimmer + a surprisingly decent adjustable bubbler ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004ISNWY6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 ), set them up 2 days ago and no more film! The bubbler is great because it's actually intended to be fully covered by gravel so just the tip pokes out, so it doesn't look super ugly. It's adjustable to the point where now I just have super fine bubbles that don't pop too high and get on my Finnex ( I'm worried about water damage & warranty issues ). Now it's a case of controlling the algae - since getting the Finnex installed there has been an absolute explosion, to the point where even the new growth on the plants from the better lighting can't keep up and just gets coated in 2-3 days. I've reduced the light time from 8 hours to 5 but in addition to more frequent water changes, now that the tank has been stable ( water parameters & lighting ) I'm thinking of some biological warfare. I already have a Clown pleco and it's pretty great but I haven't seen him actually working on algae in awhile, even at night, but maybe it grows too fast. I have 1 oto left from a group of 5 that all died off, not sure if they were all ill when I bought them or what but the one that is left is probably lonely, I plan to get a few more. Finally - snails. I understand Ramshorn or Zebras are the go-to, but how many do I get? I'm mostly worried about a snail population explosion if I get more than one but I think snails you buy from a (good) LFS are sterile somehow right? Actually - speaking of that SKimmer, I like that it adds extra flow but I'm not sure where to position it, what is the general consensus on flow direction? Right now, the outflows from the pump are in the back right corner and are at a 90 degree split. I placed the skimmer on the opposite end because it gets the least flow just due to distance from the outflow, but maybe it would be better to stick it beside the outflow to bump up the flow rate in the same direction in general? Semi-related, I feel like the pump ( Fluval Canister 205 ) has decreased it's flow rate in the past 2 years. I've never measured it, but it feels lower than I remember even though I clean it regularly ( usually once every 2-3 weeks seems sufficient to keep the sponges clean ). Is it common for a pump to just...start losing power over time? TollTheHounds fucked around with this message at 19:58 on Jan 22, 2015 |
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Jan 22, 2015 19:48
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Are gold mystery snails able to right themselves? I got a couple for my tank and I'm unsure and my googling has turned up both yes and no answers.
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Jan 22, 2015 20:06
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I would go with a nerite army. They love algae and don't reproduce in freshwater. If you have a 75 gallon you could add 50 without a problem. I always add flow towards my filter intake. I will eventually put my powerhead on the glass adjacent to my intake and aim it at the front glass to create a swirl effect to push debris to my intake.
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Jan 23, 2015 06:48
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Not Your Senorita posted:Did someone say shrimp?
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Jan 24, 2015 04:14
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I had some java moss tied to rocks, phoenix moss and a scrap of stringy moss that I was trying to cultivate, all have become greener and have gained new growth since the shrimp arrived due to the constant tending and scraping off the algae (I'd had some brown diatoms starting on things I think). The other plants in the tank also look great - shrimp seem to be great gardeners. I've been doing my water changes via airhose/airstone safety siphon and I've read it's best not to disturb the gravel too much as baby shrimp will survive on that muck; best to use a turkey baster or similar to either suck out individual bits of leftover food or large lumps of muck, or foof water at the gravel to get debris into the water column to be picked up on the filter. You don't need to feed shrimp very much at all so in theory there shouldn't be a huge amount of waste build up. My worst waste and muck came from the snails that were in the tank, so I've taken the big ones out. I'm totally new to shrimp but have read a lot, hopefully someone with more experience will have something to say as well.
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Jan 24, 2015 09:17
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I used to have a 6galllon shrimp tank that was heavily planted. Red cherry shrimp are the best pets ever. I started with 20,fed them mayyyybe once a week tops, and they still reproduced like crazy. Probably had about 150 at peak shrimp horde. The thing is though they just all the sudden stopped making babies, I think after they inbreed so many times they loose the ability to breed. The only thing I'd have done differently is thrown a few from different stores just to mix up the gene pool a bit, seeing that many shrimp in such a small tank is nuts. I miss my shrimp so much 
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Jan 24, 2015 11:21
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Yeah, shrimp are great at things, but you need to add to the gene pool or they just inbreed till sterile. Course this takes a while. Mine are still reproducing after a year, but the numbers are getting smaller. Course the angel fish are shrimp eating bastards, so the previously "safe to roam" tank became a "venture out only if needed" tank. On the plus side those slut mollies haven't had any spawns survive thanks to those angels eating. The platinums are kinda meh, but the black ones aren't quite superveil, but their fins are absolutely gorgeous and huge. Trying some cabomba again, but i never seem to have very much luck with it and lots of this last batch is breaking apart. i think i may just give up on it. the java fern, however, is both spreading, rooting strong, and pumping out baby plants like crazy. I think it's trying to be the dominant plant Edit Actually, since I had the vid on my phone... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ck4zp001w-k SocketWrench fucked around with this message at 13:48 on Jan 24, 2015 |
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Jan 24, 2015 13:22
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Yeah I think I'm going to rescape my tank soon. Maybe even get rid of the dirt bottom and just have a shallow gravel layer the snails can easily clean. Plants I'll cut back down to java moss and windelov java ferns. Not sure about my anubiases. They're easy and hardy, but they're also so slow growing that they're algae magnets.
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Jan 24, 2015 13:35
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Pinkie the ulcerated rosy barb now has his own isolation tank to live in while his wound heals up. I've set it at the end of the main tank so he can see plants and other fish even if he can't school with them. The water had gone kind of weird and foamy in the hospital tank that he was in so my current approach is to give him a permanent residence instead of a temporary medicated bath, and to treat his wound topically only. I'm going to try some neosporin-esque ointment that I found in the medicine shelf in the fridge. It was originally intended to go into a cats eye and seems to repel water so I think it will be mild and stay on his wound quite well. It contains ingredients that work vs both gram positive and gram negative bacteria and doesn't just nuke everything like peroxide/iodine. There is no chance that he will be bitten, bullied, or catch his wound on anything now. I had been putting him back in the main tank every now and then because he refused food when alone but eats when everyone else is eating and I think it's important that he doesn't lose too much condition while he's trying to heal up his wound. Hopefully he will start to accept food now that he is in a nicer tank. His wound does look clean still, no fluff or hair as far as I can see, no redness spreading around it; it bled a little around the edge after I applied the ointment which I think was from the vigorous flopping he did in the net. I think he's now in a situation where it will be safe to leave him be and just monitor to see how it goes. I don't like netting him too often to apply more stuff if it is only causing him to tear the site open more.
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Jan 24, 2015 17:26
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